18890 sls text rev - stanford university · much has changed at the law school since its founding...
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A S H O R T H I S T O R Y O F S L S
Stanford began offering a curriculum in legal studies in 1893. After undergoing
rapid expansion, in 1900 the law department moved from its location in Encina Hall
to the Inner Quad and for the first time offered a three-year professional law program.
The law department also became one of 27 charter members of the Association of
American Law Schools. During this time, the law department began to focus more
on professional training than on undergraduate education. The transition from a
department to a modern graduate law school was completed in 1924 when Stanford
began requiring a bachelor’s degree for admission to its legal program.
The Great Depression and World War II seriously disrupted the work of the law
school. Enrollment dropped sharply. The law school nonetheless adhered to its high
academic standards, while recognizing that academic content would need to grow to
reflect national developments. The faculty correctly predicted that government would
play a greater role in the regulation of private affairs and so added administrative
law, taxation, trade regulation, labor law, and related subjects to the curriculum
during this period.
The late 1940s and 1950s brought a tidal wave of changes, including a relocation
from the Inner Quad to the Outer Quad, publication of the first edition of the
Stanford Law Review, the construction of a law school dormitory (Crothers Hall), the
successful introduction of a new moot court program, the graduation of two future
U.S. Supreme Court justices, and a commitment to maintaining selective enrollment
and small class size. This last decision was perhaps the most important from the
standpoint of the long-term success of the law school as it established a rigorous legal
program unique in the West and an intimate educational experience for a small,
carefully chosen student body. In the 1970s, the law school again moved—this time to
its current home in Crown Quadrangle. Speaking at the 1975 dedication ceremony
for the new law campus, U.S. President Gerald Ford extolled Stanford’s foundation
as a “solid triad of law, learning, and liberty.”
Building on this foundation, Stanford has consolidated its position as one of the
nation’s top law schools. Recognizing the necessity of experiential learning, the law
school has developed a state-of-the-art clinical program, offering students closely
supervised, pedagogically driven opportunities to work with clients. The law school
has instituted model programs in both environmental and intellectual property law.
The law school also has deepened its commitment to interdisciplinary education,
working with graduate schools throughout the university to develop cooperative
learning opportunities and joint degree programs.
Moreover, through the generosity of friends and alumni, the law school has been
able to implement physical expansions that such programmatic changes require. In
2009, law students welcomed the addition of new housing with the opening of the
Munger Graduate Residence, the housing complex adjacent to the school, designed
to facilitate interdisciplinary living and learning for law and other graduate students
studying throughout campus. And in 2011, the 65,000-square-foot William H.
Neukom Building was offi cially opened in a ceremony with U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder in which he said, “The building we now dedicate is the embodiment of
an idea—a vision of all that is, and can be, good in the legal profession.”
Much has changed at the law school since its founding in 1893. Originally, students
were drawn mainly from California; today, they come from every region of the
United States and around the world. Admission was not competitive in 1893; today,
approximately 3,800 candidates typically vie for the 180 places in each entering
class. In 1893, only a handful of courses were offered; today, students can choose
from among hundreds of course offerings both at the law school and around the
university. And today Stanford Law School continues to offer a truly unique legal
education that opens up a world of opportunity to its graduates.
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